Sarah Longstride
Sarah Longstride-Nevra was a Commando in the Grand Army of the Republic during the Cold War. She is the youngest child of Jedi Azale Vrandel and younger sister of bounty hunter Andraea Longstride. While the name of her father has never been confirmed, her mother's reaction to the question has lead Sarah to believe he is either dead or a deadbeat. Once nearly admitted to Republic Intelligence and previously a part of Havoc Squad, she is a proud member of the 421st Battalion and greatly enjoys punching the Empire in the nose whenever possible. She is still considered a top-rank enforcer for Street Sweepers Security and acts as part of the inner defensive ring for Nar Shaddaa's Nevra enclave. Biography Early Life Sarah was born in the Nevra clan enclave on Nar Shaddaa early one morning in 3666 BBY. Her birth was something of a surprise; she was almost a month and a half early, which sent the clan healers into a total panic until one of the Keepers reminded them that babies tend to come whenever they want, not when their minders decide it's time. It would have been a quiet morning, otherwise, if there hadn't been a fight with a neighboring gang right outside the enclave. It didn't go unnoticed that the newborn didn't cry until the sounds of violence had stopped; even then, it was more like irritated screaming than crying. It took three months to find her name; Azale Vrandel refused to allow anyone but the healers near her until they were sure she would survive. Once she was stable enough for examination, she managed to bite every Keeper that got too close and made a valiant attempt at pulling a Seer's little finger off. After managing to catch and bite a Seer's thumb, the rest of the visiting Seers finally gave in and named her; having two passed names born to another was something that made them a little bit nervous. Azale was able to stay with Sarah until she was about three years old, after which she was forced to leave and report to the Order; she couldn't risk raising too much suspicion. Despite having her mother around for her first years, Sarah experienced feelings of isolation similar to her big sister's ( Andraea Longstride ). Sarah wasn't playful in the same ways as other children her age; she liked to wrestle, throw things, play with the clan armorsmiths' tools, and often tried to mimic her big sister's strength training. Thankfully, Andraea noticed and made sure the smaller girl was only allowed access to the lightest weight sets. Even then, an adult usually had to step in after more than half an hour to make sure the little girl didn't hurt herself. For much of her young life, Sarah was sick with one infection or another; her immune system hadn't had the chance to finish developing before her birth. She was small, physically weak, and had little stamina. Rather than discouraging her, most clan members noted it only seemed to make her angry at herself. Like all young clan members, Sarah started testing with different weapons and techniques at about four years old. She did well with small blasters and showed real talent with rifles, and in spite of her size and minimal strength she seemed to take great pleasure in learning unarmed and knife techniques. Hutt Service Shortly after she turned five, the clan found itself in debt to a Hutt through their front as Street Sweepers Security. The nature of what put them in debt was never revealed to anyone outside the Elders and a few senior enforcers, but a peaceful agreement was reached concerning repayment. Sarah was selected to serve the Hutt for three years as an indentured servant; while similar to a slave, the title guaranteed Sarah a different sort of treatment and protection while in service. The Hutt would also not be allowed to sell the child under any circumstances. Days after moving into the Hutt's compound, Sarah was summoned to the Hutt's audience chamber to speak with her extremely irate sister. Andraea calmed after seeing her sister unharmed and not wearing a shock collar; the younger girl was instead wearing a simple metal ring around her neck with a small metal tag bearing the Hutt's personal mark. After a several minutes of talking where Sarah explained how well she was being treated, Andraea agreed not to attack the Hutt's enforcers anymore and the Hutt agreed to let her see her little sister whenever the gang's liason came for a visit. Andraea left, still not liking the situation but unable to change it and somewhat satisfied that if the Hutt hurt her little sister he would be punished severely by the Elders. For the next month Sarah acted as a cup-bearer for the Hutt and his honored guests during audiences and parties; she was made to wear a far more modest version of a dancers' outfit and spent most of her time standing near the Hutt's elbow with a tray of whatever food or drink he felt like having that day. Noticing how she tired easily, the Hutt allowed her to kneel or sit if he didn't have her serving his guests as well. During one business gathering, Sarah was sent off to serve one of a visiting businessman's entourage. The Zabrak made several lewd comments, which Sarah simply ignored, before he pulled her into his lap; she didn't ignore that. Taking advantage of her small size, Sarah squirmed free and executed a simple maneuver every young Nevra learned: twist, squeeze, then pull. Having never used the technique before, and not realizing it usually was used on men wearing pants instead of a robe, Sarah neatly removed the Zabrak's ability to produce children. Startled at the results of her actions, Sarah was further confused by the Hutt's laughter ringing out over the Zabrak's whimpering. While the Zabrak's boss was justifiably upset, the Hutt pointed out that his employee had brought it on himself. The businessman and his associates left quickly, taking their wounded companion with them as they made their way to the nearest doctor. Seeing Sarah wasn't having a negative reaction to what she had done, the Hutt decided to experiment with a different set of duties for the small girl. He assigned her to serve the head guard of his personal harem; while initially wary of the big Trandoshan, Sarah quickly found he had no unsavory interest in her and seemed to think she was a cute little flesh-thing that needed to be bigger. The females of the harem seemed to have similar ideas; as soon as they spotted her, Sarah found herself mobbed by well-meaning females trying to hug her or feed her. Over the next year, the big Trandoshan (who she always called Big guy, since she couldn't pronounce his name right) did his best to make Sarah stronger. The first thing Big Guy worked on was her endurance; he got her to the point where she could work as long as an average human without getting completely exhausted, but her strength seemed only able to increase so much. He taught her what he could of hand to hand fighting, but she couldn't do it the way he could. She was just too small and didn't have the kind of strength or mass needed to power through a fight. She still learned the techniques, though, and surprised him by finding tricks and ways around her lack of raw power. In serving the big Trandoshan, Sarah was considered an official guard for the harem. One night when Big Guy was away and she was left to guard the girls by herself, one of the Hutt's honored guests made the assumption he could use the harem without permission. When he saw the only guard was a small girl, he couldn't help laughing as he pushed her out of the way and stepped into the suite housing the girls. Before he got more than three steps beyond the door, Sarah had leapt on his back and put a slender knife through the base of his skull. The next morning she recieved praise from the Hutt and Big Guy; the Hutt gifted her a specially made stiletto and Big Guy scrounged up some broken bits of armor she could jury rig into something her size. The rest of her contracted time with the Hutt went relatively smoothely; the man who'd pushed his way into the harem was not the last person she killed, and she quickly gained a reputation among the Hutt's associates as someone not to be taken lightly. While her contracted service ended not long after she turned eight, Sarah chose to stay on as one of the Hutt's employees. She liked the training she was getting, and she secretly enjoyed the way the women of the harem treated her. Among the Nevras, a little girl going into a combat branch wouldn't be dressed up and doted on; with the harem girls, Sarah got to experience a little of what is was like to be a child. While she didn't much like the dresses and makeup the harem girls thought were cute, she did like how happy they seemed to be to have someone small to play with. Sarah spent another year living exclusively in the Hutt's compound before she felt comfortable enough in her abilities to start spending time back with her clan. The Hutt allowed her to mostly stay with her clan; the only times he truly needed her service were when he had guests he suspected would get out of hand. At that point, Sarah found herself in the unique position of being an employee to a Hutt while still belonging to Street Sweepers Security. Gang Years Only a few weeks after resuming her duties as a Street Sweeper runner, Sarah was on her way back to HQ after making a routine pick-up from one of the gang's clients when she heard a child crying. Being the curious (and protective) child she was, she immediately went to investigate. Rounding the corner, Sarah found a local chemist trying to get an unfamiliar Jedi to release her youngest son. Proving herself to be her mother's daughter, Sarah walked up to the Jedi and ripped into him. Taken by surprise, the Jedi let go of the little boy and stared at the young woman in front of him. After his brain caught up to what was happening, the Jedi met Sarah head on and her lone tirade evolved into a massive shouting match. After several minutes, the Jedi got fed up with arguing with a child and shoved Sarah out of the way. Being unprepared for the Jedi's aggression, she stumbled and banged her head against a wall. Hearing a blaster shot and shouting and seeing the Jedi turn away for a second, Sarah took the opportunity to launch herself at the Jedi's knees. A few seconds later she saw her sister jump on the Jedi and the two of them tried their best to beat the larger man to a pulp. Since she wasn't as strong as the Jedi or her sister, Sarah mostly kept the larger man off balance by tangling herself in his legs. She had his head within reach at one point and grabbed for the nearest hard object; finding a mouse droid, Sarah did her best to put it through the Jedi's skull. Being the smallest combatant, Sarah was able to see when a padawan arrived and got caught up with another Sweeper and saw the beginning of the shootout with her fellow runners and two other unfamiliar Jedi; she also saw the arrival of one of the Elders. After the Elder stuck everyone to the ground for a few minutes and allowed them to cool off, Sarah watched as her fellow Sweepers were let up first and formed a loose ring around her, Andraea, and the still-stuck Jedi. Before letting them up, the Elder made the Jedi promise they wouldn't continue the fight. Sarah and Andraea were let up with the Jedi and immediately joined their fellow Sweepers on the sidelines. While the lead Jedi demanded the force-sensitive child be surrendered to him and argued with the Elder, Sarah couldn't help but grin at the four thoroughly thrashed Jedi; she was at the perfect angle to see more Sweepers arriving and most of them were enforcers. She laughed outright as the Jedi left with their tails between their legs, followed by several enforcers. Sarah suddenly found herself not seeing her sister very much. While she was annoyed at first, once she found out why Andraea was getting extra training and attention she left the situation alone. She was kept mostly occupied by starting her delayed test-training with the various weapons available to the clan. It came as no surprise that she demonstrated natural talent with every firearm put in her hands, and the Elders had been informed of her talent with a knife. After some deliberation, Sarah was tested with several larger blades and showed a surprising aptitude with half-length vibroblades. She also showed some natural skill with several other melee weapons, but agreed with the trainers that she would never be an expert with all of them. During her own training, Sarah became increasingly frustrated with her lack of stamina and inability to get past a certain point with her physical conditioning. Her frustration came to a head during the same turf war that pushed Andraea to use a bad adrenal; despite not being near enough to help, Sarah partially blamed herself for Andraea's injuries. She felt that, if only she had been strong enough to be out with Andraea, her sister wouldn't have had to use the bad adrenal. After utterly exhausting herself for nearly a week and nearly putting herself in the medical wing, one of the clan's trainers quietly suggested she look for other ways to improve her physical condition. During a short stay in the medical wing for an unrelated unjury (apparently punching a Trandoshan in the face usually results in a broken hand), Sarah carefully questioned several of the healers about ways to work on her body. One of them mentioned a chemical conditioning program one of the adopted clan members had brought from their previous home, but when Sarah asked for a name the healer realized what she was thinking and promptly clammed up. Sarah spent a frustrating month poking her nose into the business of every clan member who'd joined within the last five years. After several of them voiced their concerns to their respective Elders, Sarah was called before the Elders and told to explain herself. Seeing no reason to lie, she told them exactly why she'd been bothering newer clan members. When they told her what she was proposing was dangerous, she told them she knew that and planned to go through with a chemical enhancement plan with or without knowledgable help. Figuring they wouldn't be able to completely stop her without putting her under house arrest, the Elders put her in touch with the clan member who actually knew a relatively safe process. While painful, Sarah did everything exactly as the assisting clan member said. Her training increased in intensity and duration, especially her general conditioning, and she often lost track of exactly how long she had been training. She realized a year had passed when she stood with her sister while the older woman recieved her clan tattoos. After saying goodbye to Andraea when she left for the Republic Military Academy, Sarah threw herself completely into her training. During those years she put on more muscle than she'd thought possible and her endurance reached a point where even several of the clan trainers had trouble keeping up with her. With so much added muscle mass, Sarah had to adjust her fighting style somewhat. While careful to maintain her flexibility, she learned she could finally use some of what Big Guy had taught her the way he'd intended it to be used. She still had the ability to squirm out of quite a few things, but she could brute force her way through a lot more and no longer had to be as careful about being caught; she wasn't nearly as delicate as she had been. About a year after Andraea left for the military and after several minor scuffles with enemy gang members, Sarah was promoted to enforcer and was allowed to go on runs where fights were expected. During one of the more intense conflicts, Sarah was completely disarmed and forced into a fight against a heavily armed Twi'lek. Afraid for her life for the first time she could remember, Sarah reacted instinctively. When the Twi'lek had her in a solid hold and all she could do was flail, she ended up slicing his face and neck open by accident. While killing someone was nothing new to her, Sarah was startled by what she'd done; she couldn't figure out how she'd cut him without a weapon in her hands. Some of her fellow enforcers had seen what happened and described it in as much detail as they could during their report to their lead enforcer. After some deliberation, Sarah was handed off to the same trainer that had pushed Andraea during her Force training. While her breaking point came faster than her sister's, the trainer noticed during a few encounters she could also seemingly switch her personality off at will when she came across a situation she couldn't brute force her way through. When he asked her about it, she simply shrugged and reminded him she'd had to deal with a Hutt's friends on a regular basis for several years. Due to the combined intensity of her physical conditioning and Force training, Sarah was forced to completely leave the Hutt's service. She was told, however, that if she ever wanted a more permanent job she would always have a place with his people. Thanks to the constant treatments with a combination of stearoids and enhanced hormones and the extreme pressures she put on herself, Sarah's body almost totally reached physical maturity shortly after she turned fifteen. After a further year of training, Sarah started getting bored with life among the clan. When she got word Andraea and her squad had gone MIA, she went before the Elders and demanded permission to go find her sister. They flatly refused. Sarah threatened to go without their permission, and when they told her she would risk expulsion from the clan she simply told them where they could shove their clan if they thought she was going to leave her sister missing. After much deliberation (where they realized, once again, Sarah would do exactly what she wanted whether they gave permission or not), the Elders told Sarah she could go after Andraea if she did it "from the inside." When she asked what they meant, they told her she needed to join the Republic Military. While they hoped she would back down, they weren't surprised when Sarah nodded and asked where the nearest recruiter was staying. The Elders managed to keep her in the enclave long enough to get her tattoos, but once she'd healed up she immediately sought out a recruiter. Thanks to the chemical regimen she'd gone through, the usual tests used to determine age came up either inconclusive or corrupted. With no "official" records to be found on Nar Shaddaa, the recruiter just shrugged and took Sarah's word that she was seventeen. The next day, she was shipping out. Republic Military Training Sarah arrived at the Academy just in time for the semester to begin and immediately threw herself into any work put in front of her. For four months she spent her time in class, studying, or in the gym, with an occasional break for sleep. Deciding to stay on during the short semester break, Sarah accidentally ran into a SIS officer on her way back from the gym one evening. She couldn't help laughing when she realized she'd found one of the men the Nevras rented a safehouse to; she'd even run several of the pickups for that rent before she gained Enforcer status. Once the SIS officer actually recognized her, he quietly asked if he could speak with her somewhere less visible. Feeling relatively safe, Sarah led him back to her otherwise empty bunk. After carefully checking for listening devices, the officer demanded to know how she'd gotten into the academy when he knew she was too young. Sarah's response was a shrug, a grin, and a very rude description of the recruitment officer she'd gone to. The SIS officer threatened to out her, which would result in her being thrown out, but Sarah pointed out that she had already accessed most of the strategic information available at the academy and had quietly made copies, just in case. After he'd finished picking his jaw up off the floor, the officer realized he was seeing a totally different side of Sarah than the one he'd met on Nar Shadaa, and he asked her about the radical difference, hoping to buy himself some time to figure out how to salvage the situation. Sarah replied by switching to another of the personality masks she'd developed, which startled the officer even more. He played along with it for several minutes, amazed at how a simple change in posture and speech cadence could turn a strong, brash young woman into a timid, almost simpering girl. Sarah was the first to tire of the mask and slipped back into her normal self, which brought the conversation back to something more normal. The officer finally offered a different way out for both of them: he would bring Sarah in for SIS to talk to, not arrest or interrogate, and she wouldn't send the copied files to anyone. Sarah agreed, and the next day a routine bed check turned up a perfectly clean bunk and no sign anyone had been there since the break started. Sarah spent several weeks talking to various SIS personnel, only confirming what the first officer had reported. Still not wanting to have her back at the Academy, it was quietly agreed that Sarah would work with SIS for a little while. Once she was actually old enough, they would hand her back to the Academy. That little while turned into almost a year and a half. Sarah proved herself capable of most tasks put in front of her, including some she hadn't been assigned. While technically not an official operative, Sarah was given limited security clearance and a trainee's ID chip so she wouldn't be stopped too much if she was found snooping around. There was quite a bit of snooping, as Sarah was curious how her sister had turned out after being found. She was still a bit peeved she hadn't been able to help with the recovery, but knowing her sister was still alive and killing made her feel better about it. It was on a relatively quiet trip to Belsavis (why anyone thought taking a trainee there was a good idea is still being debated) that Sarah earned herself a nickname. Being a hardened criminal, the subject of one interrogation simply was not giving anything up. Sarah watched the interrogation go on for four hours with no results, until the interrogating officer finally got tired and decided to try again in the morning. Sarah quietly asked a few questions around the small outpost and, after everyone else had either gone to sleep or was on watch, slipped into the prisoner's cell. The next morning someone discovered the recordings for the cell from the previous night had been altered and the originals completely wiped. The prisoner was found dead, covered in tiny lacerations and in such a condition the responding medical officer had to try very hard not to be sick. Officially, it was concluded that an Imperial operative had snuck in and made sure the prisoner hadn't divulged anything before offing him, just to be sure. Unofficially, a thorough transcript and report found its way to the lead officer's desk. The intel was used to stop several small incidents, and the other officers quietly started referring to Sarah as Razor. Seeing what she was capable of, the lead officer sent Sarah back to the Academy. While he felt she could be trained to tone things down somewhat, he thought she needed some time to get the violence out of her system first. He sent a report with her, informing the proctors at the Academy to treat her as a senior student. It was during that final semester she heard about her sister being declared KIA. Sarah showed the appropriate signs of mourning, but otherwise the only change in her behavior seemed to be her talking less. She graduated on time with the rest of the class and only spent a couple weeks on Coruscant before being shipped off to join her sister's old squad on Balmorra. Republic Military Service Sarah spent a good two and a half years running with Late Squad. The three original members quickly adopted her as their little sister, much as Andraea had been, and the CO treated her almost exactly as he'd treated Andraea. Sarah simply ignored him every time he opened his mouth and made precise notes about everything he said to her. At the squad's most recent posting on Hoth, Sarah finally ended up alone on patrol with their CO. Using what she'd learned in SIS, she gently steered the conversation toward her sister. The dead silence Sarah had given the CO most of the time made him think she was stupid, so he didn't watch himself as closely as he should have. He admitted to throwing the grenade that resulted in Andraea's "death" and let slip that he'd hoped it would have put her in a position where she would need him to vouch for her continued place on the squad, thus putting her in his debt. Once he got going, Sarah just nodded along at the appropriate moments. Less than a week later, the entire squad was out on a scouting run with two others when they were ambushed. It was a slaughter, leaving only Sarah, Twitch, and their CO alive. They managed to take out most of the attacking force, but several escaped and the three survivors took the rest of the day to drag their comrades back to base. Sarah became totally silent, not even responding to Twitch when he spoke to her, and started spending her time sitting in her bunk fidling with her armor or outside helping guard the speeder platform. A couple weeks later, when Sarah and her CO were on patrol again, they came across an Imperial Agent attempting to infiltrate a remote corner of the base via some of the ventilation shafts. The fight was quick, with the operative half frozen, surprised, and not equipped to face two well-armed and well-trained commandos. While the operative lay dying in the snow, Sarah's CO stood over him and gloated. He suddenly found himself choking, and it took him several precious moments to realize his throat had been slit. Flailing, he found his medical equipment had been lost in the fight, and when he turned to Sarah for help he found her standing several yards away, staring at him with a disturbingly serene smile on her face. Once he'd finally expired, Sarah got closer to the two bodies and scuffed the snow some more before breaking some of her gear and slicing her own face. A solid blow to her head helped as well, throwing her balance off. Stumbling back to base, she reported the encounter and said she had been fighting with a second operative that managed to take her out before she could see the end of the fight. When asked why she was alive, she pointed out the massive amount of blood spattered over her chestplate and neck, plus the concussion, and said she could only assume the operative had thought she was either dead or would stay out long enough to freeze to death. Another patrol later found a second body, not far from the site of the incident, carrying Imperial gear. He looked to have died from internal injuries caused by heavy grav rounds. The officers on base came to the conclusion that Sarah had managed to do enough damage to the operative during their fight that he hadn't been able to make it back to his own base after killing Sarah's CO. Sarah never said anything to dispute that conclusion, even though she knew the body had been there for about three days before the fight that killed her CO. After all, she'd been the one to put it there during one of her days guarding the speeder platform, just after she was sent off after her shift. Down to two members, Late Squad was officially disbanded and both Sarah and Twitch were put on leave until new assignments could be worked out. Personality and Traits :"If I have to tell you to shut up one more time, I'm going to shove my boot so far up your ass you'll be spitting armor plating for a month!" ~Sarah Powers and Abilities ((WIP)) SWTOR Class and Spec Commando, Gunnery tree. Can throw down an emergency heal, but is more likely to ignore the dying and concentrate on shooting. Family *Azale Vrandel - Mother *Andraea Longstride - Sister *Kelin Vicor - Husband Category:Nevra Legacy Category:Republic Characters Category:Longstride Family Category:Vrandel Family